AT&T's TV Inventory Infusion; AppNexus Battles Bots

With DirecTV, AT&T has had two minutes of ad space per hour to sell as its own inventory. Time Warner’s Turner cable channels, which include CNN, TNT and TBS, will give AT&T around 14 more minutes per hour, reports The Wall Street Journal. AT&T can fuel growth by adding that cable TV inventory to its addressable ad platform – its targeted media sells at a CPM that’s five to six times higher than a typical national cable spot. “We understand that there’s going to be risk associated with that, but the size of the prize is pretty significant accompanied with the resources of AT&T combined with Time Warner,” said John Stankey, the AT&T exec who will lead Time Warner, referring during the DOJ trial last month to a potential automated ad marketplace.

Bot Busting

AppNexus announced a deal with White Ops to scan every ad either bought or sold through its exchange for bots. Read the release. The DSP has been on a mission to stamp out bad traffic for years. [Dive into the AdExchanger vault to read about some of the company’s earliest efforts.] AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley was attracted to White Ops because of its singular focus on detecting non-human traffic, unlike other third-party ad tech and verification vendors, whose services extend to brand safety and viewability. Industry initiatives like ads.txt have made strides against certain kinds of fraud, like spoofed URLs or unknown supply chain vendors, but picking ad fraud’s low-hanging fruit may bring attention to more sophisticated, better-hidden efforts. Business Insider has more.

ROI And SPF

If you want a chance at the lion’s share of attention at Cannes, you’ve got to go big or go home. Snapchat made a splash at Cannes Lions festival last year following its IPO with billboards and a branded ferris wheel, while Google and Facebook stake out prominent beach real estate to host meetings and entertain clients. On the upswing at last, Twitter is making itself visible at the festival with billboards at the Nice airport and throughout the city, Garett Sloane reports for Ad Age. The outdoor ads are tied to the World Cup, which was a major revenue driver for Twitter during the 2014 Brazil games. Twitter isn’t new to OOH. The social media platform won a Cannes Grand Prix award last year for a 2016 out-of-home campaign touting its role in breaking news and cultural moments.